Ram Shriram
About Ram Shriram
Ram Shriram has been on Google's board since September 1998. He has been managing partner of Sherpalo Ventures, an angel venture investment company, since January 2000, according to Google's SEC filings.
Before Sherpalo he was Vice President of Business Development at Amazon.com from August 1998 to September 1999. Earlier he was President of Junglee Corporation, which Amazon acquired in 1998, and an early member of the executive team at Netscape Communications. He is also on the board of trustees of Stanford University and holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Madras.
A Stanford Social Innovation Review profile lists him on the boards of Paperless Post and Zazzle. Tracxn lists him as a board member at Antheia. A 2025 announcement said he joined the board of GridCARE and continues as a director of Alphabet.
Shriram founded Sherpalo in 2000 as an angel investment fund. Data providers give different counts of his deals. NFX Signal shows 83 investments on record, Crunchbase shows 46 personal investments, and Tracxn shows a portfolio of 36 companies.
Sherpalo's portfolio includes Notion, Skyroot and Gusto, according to the GridCARE announcement. Seedtable lists Razorpay as a seed-stage entry and Notion as a Series A entry. Tracxn lists Razorpay and Intuit as his most notable investments.
Runta announced a $20M seed round in July 2026, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Ram Shriram was among the participants, alongside Jeff Dean, Fei-Fei Li, Ali Ghodsi and Thomas Wolf. Runta builds a runtime execution layer and sandboxing infrastructure for AI agents.
Iconic raised a $6M seed round in May 2026, and Tracxn lists Shriram as one of its angel investors.
Other recent AI-related deals on NFX Signal include GridCARE (seed, May 2025, AI infrastructure and climate technology), Yupp (seed, June 2025), Manifold Labs (Series A, July 2025) and Avantis Labs (Series A, June 2025). Seedtable tags Unbound Security, Abacus.ai and Aisera as AI companies he backed.
NFX Signal ranks him in AI at seed and AI at Series A, and lists him as a San Francisco Bay Area angel. It gives an investment range of $10K to $500K, a typical check of $100K, and a current fund size of $90M. These are third-party figures, not statements from Shriram.
Seedtable's stage breakdown for 23 deals with a recorded stage shows 11 seed, 6 Series A and 5 Series B. Tracxn lists his top sectors as Enterprise Applications and FinTech, with investments in the United States, India and other countries. His portfolio also includes space and aerospace companies such as Skyroot Aerospace and Cosmoserve Space. I found no public statement from him on what he looks for in a pitch.
- Runta: runtime execution layer and sandboxing for AI agents; participated in the $20M seed announced July 2026.
- Iconic: $6M seed round in May 2026.
- GridCARE: AI infrastructure and climate technology; seed round in May 2025, and he later joined its board.
- Yupp: seed round in June 2025 per NFX Signal.
- Manifold Labs: Series A in July 2025 per NFX Signal.
- Avantis Labs: Series A in June 2025 per NFX Signal.
- Skyroot Aerospace: Indian space launch company; a convertible note in January 2022 per NFX Signal.
- Notion: listed as a Sherpalo portfolio company.
- Razorpay: payments company; Seedtable lists a seed-stage entry.
- Google: early investor and founding board member since 1998.
- sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001288776/000119312512174477/d338088d10ka
- signal.nfx.com/investors/ram-shriram
- ssir.org/articles/entry/qa_with_ram_shriram
- finance.yahoo.com/news/google-founding-board-member-ram-143000525.html
- seedtable.com/people/ram-shriram
- tracxn.com/d/people/ram-shriram/__6Qns95r06CzAz5lK2d8ZjavGZ360bQ74I9gt
- finsmes.com/2026/07/runta-raises-20m-in-seed-funding.html
- devcuration.com/articles/runta-raises-20m-seed-led-by-andreessen-horow
Investing activity
Ram Shriram appears in 2 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $20M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $20M. The most recent are Runta (Seed, $20M, Jul 2026) and Iconic (Seed, $6M, May 2026).
Ram Shriram most often invests alongside Andreessen Horowitz, Fei-Fei Li, Thomas Wolf and Jeffrey Dean, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Ram Shriram
Does Ram Shriram invest in AI startups?
Yes. He participated in Runta's $20M seed (July 2026) and Iconic's $6M seed (May 2026). NFX Signal ranks him in AI at seed and Series A.
What check size does Ram Shriram write?
He has not publicly stated a check size that I could find. NFX Signal lists a range of $10K to $500K with a typical check of about $100K. Treat that as an estimate.
What stage does Ram Shriram invest in?
Mostly seed and Series A. Seedtable's breakdown of 23 deals with a recorded stage shows 11 seed, 6 Series A and 5 Series B.
What is Sherpalo Ventures?
Sherpalo Ventures is the angel investment company Shriram founded in January 2000. It is based in Menlo Park, California.
Who is Ram Shriram?
He is a founding member of Google's board and still serves as an Alphabet director. He previously worked at Netscape and Amazon and ran Junglee before its acquisition by Amazon.
Does Ram Shriram invest outside the United States?
Yes. Tracxn lists investments in the United States, India and other countries. His portfolio includes Indian companies such as Razorpay and Skyroot Aerospace.
Is Ram Shriram an angel investor?
Yes. Ram Shriram invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Ram Shriram invested in?
Ram Shriram's AI investments include Runta and Iconic. The 2 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Ram Shriram invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Ram Shriram has invested at Seed, with a median round of $20M.
Who does Ram Shriram co-invest with?
Ram Shriram's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Andreessen Horowitz (1 deal), Fei-Fei Li (1 deal), Thomas Wolf (1 deal), Jeffrey Dean (1 deal) and Ali Ghodsi (1 deal).